Albania: Obama petitioned accept Uighurs in US

TIRANA, Albania 
A former Chinese Muslim detainee at Guantanamo Bay has asked President Barack Obama to release his 17 compatriots – known as Uighurs – still being held there, and allow them to live in the United States.

A lawyer representing former detainee Abu Bakker Qassim says he wrote to the president on March 24. A copy of the letter was e-mailed to the Associated Press Friday by Abu Bakker's lawyer, Sabin Willet.

Obama has announced his intention to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, but the fate of the remaining 240 detainees remains uncertain.

"I congratulate you for that and for your historic election. But many months have passed," Abu Bakker wrote.

"I hope that one day soon your government and countrymen will meet our 17 brothers. Maybe when that day comes there would be hope that we might come to America too."

The Uighurs remaining at Guantanamo are no longer regarded as enemy combatants by the United States. But U.S. authorities have rejected calls by China to return the detainees, citing fears of persecution.

Albania accepted five Uighur detainees in 2006 but has balked at taking others, partly due to concern about diplomatic repercussions from China.

A Swedish immigration court initially granted asylum to one of the men, but the Swedish migration board is now appealing the decision to a higher court. Adil Hakimjan applied for asylum in Sweden because his sister lives there.

Uighurs are from Xinjiang, an isolated region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations. They say they have been repressed by the Chinese government. China long has said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang.

The Uighur detainees taken to Guantanamo were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001.

Albania, one of Europe's poorest countries, has offered some assistance to the Uighurs – jobs, mosques and help learning the local language.

They remain cut off from their families in China, Abu Bakker wrote.

"I think about the family which perhaps I will never see again and I resolve not to forget my vow, seven years ago, to be their hero," he wrote.